In January 2021, Garcia scored his most impressive victory by rallying to stop Luke Campbell. The fight showed that Garcia is a legitimate lightweight contender who can successfully navigate his way past trouble in the ring.
But even though he was scheduled to fight Javier Fortuna in July 2021, Garcia pulled out of the bout, because he said it was "important to manage my health and wellbeing."
From the opening bell, Tagoe circled around the ring with his back to the ropes. Garcia moved forward, trying to trap his foe in a spot where he'd be able to showcase his speed and power, but those moments rarely came in the fight.
Garcia was able to land a clean right hand in the second round that sent Tagoe spilling to the floor. That knockdown mostly came as a result of Tagoe being off-balance, however, and Tagoe went right back to circling and the fight settled into that same routine round after round.
In Round 10, Garcia landed his best punches of the fight, sending Tagoe stumbling around the ring. Tagoe was able to repeatedly clinch until he had recovered, however, and Garcia would never come close to finishing the fight again.
Despite the lack of a stoppage, Garcia won nearly every second of the fight, with Tagoe doing little offensively. According to CompuBox, Garcia landed 165 punches to 90 from Tagoe.
"I think if I'd started pressing him harder in the beginning of the fight, I could have gotten him out of there," Garcia said in his post-fight interview. "But what can I say? It was a track-down fight. I had to track him down. It was a new experience having to cut the ring off against a guy who was trying to fight to survive. I appreciate it."
At the end of 12 rounds, the official scorecards read 119-108, 119-108 and 118-109 as Garcia remained undefeated as a professional.
